Nov 242010
The banking system of any country is fragile in the best of times. The reason for that is the fractional reserve system whereby banks only have a very small portion of equity backing lots of assets and liabilities.
Modern banking has evolved, under the increasingly lax supervision of regulators, to the point where formal reserve requirements have little meaning. Loosened regulations regarding what suffices to meet these safety requirements have effectively nullified them.
http://britanniaradio.blogspot.com/2010/11/euro-crisis-plans-for-european-bank.html
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2010/11/run-on-allied-irish-banks-customers.html
